Monthly Archives: March 2015

Good morning! Today is Friday and OH SNAP it’s COVER REVEAL DAY! Big shout out to everyone who has already pre-ordered the novella to The Free Falling Series, titled “Today. Tomorrow. Always.”, and for those who have not, but would like to, you can do so here for only $0.99. It was great revisiting Sam and AJ one last time and I really, really hope you enjoy it, too. I’ve stated before that this story was written SOLELY for the fans of the series. My plan was to be done after “Exposed”, but I couldn’t ignore those who requested to see more of them as adults–HAPPY adults 😀

In this novella, roughly two years have passed since the end of Exposed. I made sure to show you where AJ’s relationship with his father ended up; there’s plenty of Terrell of course 😉 ; there are updates on Kira and Antonio; and you will also get a glimpse of Angel (Sam’s cousin) meeting Kai for the first time. Be on the lookout for their story as well. The title is “Delivered” (Free Falling Book 4), and it will be another AMBW romance. You can add this one on Goodreads, here.

Note: for anyone who still has not started the series, there’s still time to get the first three books read before the novella is released on the 26th. And to help you kick things off, book one, “Gravity”, is absolutely FREE with another special, limited-time offer right inside 😀

❤ “Today. Tomorrow. Always.” Blurb: ❤

Events and decisions of the past almost cost her everything, but she was given a second chance.
He marvels at the beautiful life that almost slipped through his fingers, vowing never to let anything come between them again.
The memory of being apart lingers with both Sam and AJ, but those days are long gone. Now that the dust has settled, all that remains is their unwavering love and an impenetrable bond many have tried and failed to break.
“Today. Tomorrow. Always.” is a glimpse into the life this couple has managed to build together and a chance to catch up with old friends you’ve grown to love throughout the Free Falling series.

❤

And now, without further ado, the cover…

Thanks for stopping by to check it out! And I also want to thank everyone who participated in my Rafflecopter giveaway! The winner of the full paperback set of the series is:

WARNING: For anyone who has not yet finished the Free Falling series, I strongly suggest that you read no further because this excerpt contains spoilers.

Blurb:

Events and decisions of the past almost cost her everything, but she was given a second chance.

He marvels at the beautiful life that almost slipped through his fingers, vowing never to let anything come between them again.

The memory of being apart lingers with both Sam and AJ, but those days are long gone. Now that the dust has settled, all that remains is their unwavering love and an impenetrable bond many have tried and failed to break.

“Today. Tomorrow. Always.” is a glimpse into the life this couple has managed to build together and a chance to catch up with old friends you’ve grown to love throughout the Free Falling series.

A set of small hands reached up and the little guy attached to them stared at me with watery eyes. He had the hardest time accepting that I had to first put my things down before picking him up. With a fistful of my pant leg gathered in his hand to steady himself, he followed me over to the counter where I placed my keys, a few pieces of mail, and my suit jacket. This was the warm greeting he always gave when I came home from work and I found myself looking forward to it every day.

With my hands free, I stooped to take him into my arms. The second I did, a big grin spread across his face, showing off two teeth on the top and two on the bottom as his pacifier clattered to the tiled floor. Gentle pats hit both sides of my face as he gurgled a few syllables.

A sound from the living room led me in that direction, carrying Anthony with me as I left the kitchen.

“Is that mommy in there?” I asked him.

He gave a big nod.

“Good. Let’s go get her.”

Turning the corner, the sound of my steps no longer echoed throughout the house as I made it onto carpet. There, on all fours with her head and arm underneath the couch, was Sam. Whatever she was searching for, she looked good doing it.

“Now that’s what I call a greeting.”

She laughed when she heard my voice, but continued to fumble around under the couch. “Hello to you, too, and quit being nasty.”

I tilted my head to the side for a better view. “You can’t have all that in my face and expect me not to say something.”

Her laughter filled the room again as the boy and I watched, staring intently for two totally different reasons. I’m sure seeing Sam made him think of snacks and hugs and whatnot. Me? Not so much. Hugs weren’t exactly what came to mind.

“Ha! Found ‘em,” she announced, hopping up with her keys in hand. She dangled them triumphantly in my face, although I had no idea what was going on.

“Congratulations?”

She rolled her eyes at me with a grin. “Your son here is a menace to society.” Before going on, she landed a kiss on my lips and lightly pinched Anthony’s cheek. He smiled and rested his head on my shoulder, popping his thumb into his mouth in place of the pacifier he’d lost.

“Thanks to him, I’ve spent the last hour looking for my keys.”

“Nah… you have zero proof he did it,” I rebutted, defending my son despite fully believing he was responsible. He’d done the same thing to me about a week ago. I was ready to leave for work, only to find that my keys were missing. That time Sam and I found them in the back of his toy dump-truck. Since he started walking a few weeks back, things have been coming up missing left and right.

“No, no, no… don’t let that cute face fool you. The little booger stole them, and then hid them, because he enjoys seeing me search all over the house like a crazy person.”

As if he knew he was in the hot-seat, Anthony reached for his mom and she gladly accepted the tight squeeze he gave her neck, making sure he knew she wasn’t really upset. With my arms now free, I could greet my wife properly, grabbing her, pulling her close as she eased our little boy over to her hip. I sought a kiss and she gave me what I was after.

There was a high-pitched giggle and a screech off to my left as the kiss with Sam deepened, keeping it PG since we wouldn’t be getting any alone time until later tonight.

“I think he’s watching us,” Sam said breathily as her lips moved with mine.

“Let him. The boy has to learn from somewhere.”

She shoved me away a few inches when she burst out laughing. “Get your hormones in check! What’re you gonna do when our guests get here? Three whole days of no… contact.”

Did she just say three days? Since when did we start caring if someone was around or not?

“Terrell and Maisha are hardly guests; they’re family,” I countered. “And besides, with the whole… ‘kid situation’ we have going on here—” I paused to gesture toward our son. “I’m pretty sure they know we have sex.”

“AJ! Don’t say that word in front of him!” Sam screeched, trying not to smile as she covered one of Anthony’s ears with her free hand and pressed his other to her chest. “All we need is for our parents to call to talk to him and he blurts that out.”

I imagined the scenario she just described and smiled. “C’mon… Tell me that wouldn’t be funny, though.”

She couldn’t even deny it, giggling a bit at the thought. “Oh my gosh… I can’t even deal with you two right now. You’re both trouble.”

She handed my namesake back over to me, mussing his dark curls with her fingers right after. “I’ll be back in a few. My plan was to be done at the store by the time you made it home, but somebody decided to mess up my plan. I won’t mention the perp’s name, but he’s the shortest person in the room. That’s all I’m gonna say.”

A kiss went to Anthony’s cheek and then mine as Sam passed by.

I followed her with my eyes. “Need me to do anything while you’re gone? The guest room’s all set?” I asked.

She nodded. “Yup, I freshened up the sheets and everything while he napped. But if you’re looking for something to do, could you put him in the tub for me? I still have to cook when I get back and I don’t want to have to worry about it after they get here.”

“No problem.” I headed toward to the stairs to run the bathwater.

“Don’t forget to put a towel down on the floor first. You know he likes to splash,” she warned, as if I hadn’t done this a hundred times before.

“Got it.”

“And don’t forget—”

“—the faucet cover so he doesn’t bump his head. I know,” I said with a laugh, already halfway up the steps. “I’ll handle bathing the boy; you go do your thing at the store and quit worrying.”

When I turned around, she was standing in the foyer. A warm smile crossed her face as it often did when she watched me with our son. She knew I had things under control. “Ok… I shouldn’t be gone long.”

“Be careful,” I said as she turned to leave.

“I will; try to stay out of trouble. Both of you,” she called out, closing the door behind herself.

I turned toward Anthony and he smiled like he knew what was going on. I shook my head. “Geez… Mommy doesn’t let us have any fun, does she?”

With the cover reveal coming this Friday, I wanted to do a few special things this week, all of which will be focused on the Free Falling series. Today, I’m letting you all in on some things that didn’t make it into the book, scenes that changed, and characters who popped in at the last minute 🙂 Enjoy!

3) There’s still time to enter the Rafflecopter giveaway, even if you’ve already entered! The prize is a full, paperback set of the Free Falling Series!

❤ 11 Facts You Didn’t Know About the “Free Falling Series” ❤

In the first draft of Gravity, Sam wasn’t an artist. I added that in during the re-write. She just felt so… one-dimensional to me, like she just existed, so I gave her more personality during that round. Adding in her love of art was part of that rounding out process for her.

Exposed (the original draft) read very dark to me. AJ was single and cold. I hated him LOL. I nixed that version COMPLETELY (all 350+ pages of it) and started over. I’m soooo glad I did.

Kira, Kira, Kira… she was added into book two about a month before release. Yes… a month. Reina was an only child and I made the snap decision to add in a twin for her. Little did I know, she’d have such a huge impact on the story as a whole.

In the original book two, someone died.

Exposed was written in two months. Mostly because I painted myself into a corner. With the low note book two ended on, I knew I needed to put the third book out quickly. With the changes that took place in the re-write of book two (i.e. nixing the death and adding in Kira), I had no choice but to start Exposed from scratch.

There were originally 4 full-length books in this series. However, that felt like over-kill to me. It was actually about 80% complete, but I decided not to go through with it. Besides, with all the plot changes that took place during rewrites of “Secrets” and “Exposed” that book didn’t fit the series AT ALL by this point. Plus it was a continuation of the darkness of the original “Exposed” and I just wasn’t happy with it.

In the first draft of Gravity, there was a lot more detail about side characters such as Leslie and Sam’s other friends. Some of AJ’s, too, but that made it feel more like a YA novel, which wasn’t what I was aiming for. So, I went through and cut out all that felt unnecessary and just focused on the two of them.

Ugh… after publishing, I hated myself for making AJ’s real name (Anthony) and Antonio’s names so close!

The first draft of Gravity was written in 2009, but I didn’t publish it until 2013. By then I’d given it a new title.

Confession: when I started writing the book, I had NO IDEA if she’d end up with Antonio or AJ LOL. It wasn’t until I got into the characters and started really feeling the plot molding me, instead of me molding the plot, that I realized what was happening.

I didn’t realize I wanted this to be a series until about halfway through book one.

*Apologies to anyone who came here from my Facebook page expecting an excerpt. That was going to be my initial post, but I changed my mind, deciding to do that later in the week. However, the title didn’t change in the link. Didn’t mean for it to be misleading 🙂 Snippet coming soon!*

Reminder: Don’t forget to enter my Rafflecopter giveaway while there’s still time! There are multiple ways to enter and you can enter daily to better your chances!!

The Prize? A set of signed paperbacks

In celebration of the March 26th release of the Free Falling novella, “Today. Tomorrow. Always.” (available now for preorder), I’ve made the first book in the series, Gravity, FREE for a limited time! So go grab a copy today 🙂 The prices of the second and third installments (Secrets and Exposed) have also been temporarily reduced to $2.99, so now is a great time to get caught up on the series before the story concludes in a couple weeks!

❤ A big THANK YOU to all those who have followed and supported the series thus far, and THANK YOU to those who have recently decided to check out Sam and AJ’s story! ❤

I’ve got some exciting news!!! Sam and AJ’s novella, “Today. Tomorrow. Always.”, the final chapter of the Free Falling Series, is now available for pre-order for only $0.99!! The cover I have up is just a temporary placeholder until the cover reveal on Friday, March 20th, so don’t judge LOL 😀 I can’t wait to share the real deal with you, though!

For those who have not yet begun the journey through the series. don’t fret! Gravity, book one in the series, is only $0.99 as well! There’s still time to get through the first three installments before the novella is released on March 26th 😀 This series features an African-American heroine and Japanese-American hero. Feel free to check out the Pinterest board for visuals, and then once you finish with book 3, “Exposed”, check this board out 😀 WARNING: Don’t peek at it before then, because there are a few spoilers in my pins!

In the meantime, I’m posting the blurb here, AND giving all of you a chance to enter my Rafflecopter giveaway!!! There are tons of ways to enter, some of which you can participate in daily for multiple entries. Can’t wait to announce the winner on Cover Reveal Day!!

❤ Blurb ❤

Events and decisions of the past almost cost her everything, but she was given a second chance.

He marvels at the beautiful life he almost missed out on, vowing never to let anything come between them again.

The memory of being apart lingers with both Sam and AJ, but those days are long gone. Now that the dust has settled, all that remains is their unwavering love and an impenetrable bond many have tried and failed to break.

“Today. Tomorrow. Always.” is a glimpse into the life this couple has managed to build together and a chance to catch up with old friends you’ve grown to love throughout the Free Falling series.

*****

❤ THE PPRIZE ❤

(Minus my lamp lol)

❤ ENTER TO WIN TODAY (and tomorrow, and the next day, and the next day)… ❤